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Sex and the Founding Fathers

The American Quest for a Relatable Past

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Biographers, journalists, and satirists have long used the subject of sex to define the masculine character and political authority of America's Founding Fathers. Tracing these commentaries on the Revolutionary Era's major political figures in Sex and the Founding Fathers, Thomas Foster shows how continual attempts to reveal the true character of these men instead exposes much more about Americans and American culture than about the Founders themselves.

Sex and the Founding Fathers examines the remarkable and varied assessments of the intimate lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Morris from their own time to ours. Interpretations can change radically; consider how Jefferson has been variously idealized as a chaste widower, condemned as a child molester, and recently celebrated as a multicultural hero.

Foster considers the public and private images of these generally romanticized leaders to show how each generation uses them to reshape and reinforce American civic and national identity.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 2, 2013
      In this concise, engaging book, Foster (Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man) explores the intimate lives of six Founding Fathers, and, more importantly, the way their sex lives have been presented and analyzed over the years. Focusing on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and the oft-forgotten Gouverneur Morris, Foster deftly demonstrates the ways these men’s private lives have been essentially rewritten to present the normative, virtuous, and manly Founders Americans choose to believe in. Drawing primarily from popular biographies, from the colonial era through present day, the book explores the ways biographers present their subjects in response to the times: strict Victorian morals, Freudian psychoanalysis, and contemporary attempts to embrace, rather than hide, all aspects of their lives. Foster addresses the glossing over of Washington’s lack of children (perhaps he was sterile, but god forbid he was impotent), the refashioning of Franklin’s Parisian affairs as the “harmless” pleasures of a “foxy grandpa,” and the romanticized marriage of John and Abigail Adams—the “Romeo and Juliet of the American Revolution”. Proving that you can’t trust biographers, Foster ably reveals that sex has always factored into national identity and that the Founders were flesh-and-blood men, unable to support idealistic American standards of morality.

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2014

      There is no shortage of books about the Founding Fathers. Our fascination with them is almost as pervasive as our fascination with sex. Where those subjects intersect is the focus of this new study by Foster (history, DePaul Univ.; Sex and the Eighteenth Century Man: Massachusetts and the History of Sexuality in America). By mining the numerous writings about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Gouverneur Morris, Foster reveals how each generation has sought to understand the founders as human beings. For example, George Washington, although he had no children of his own, has long been glossed as "the father of our country," with his manliness determined by other measures. Foster explains that it is through exploring these men as people that we understand and relate to them. As times and social mores about masculinity and sexuality have changed, so have interpretations of these men and their personal lives. VERDICT Foster is looking at the how and why of his subjects. Readers looking for coverage of the personal, romantic, and sexual lives of the founders will find that information in Charles Tansill's The Secret Loves of the Founding Fathers and similar works. Those seeking a better understanding of how and why biographers explore these topics, and why we care, should look to this fascinating and well-written work.--Michael C. Miller, Austin P.L. & Austin History Ctr., TX

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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